SUNDAY
+ I spent a few hours this afternoon at the Northern California 'Ukulele Festival in Hayward. Lots of good music and interesting people (think Berkeley -- except they're all wearing Aloha shirts).

+ John & Diane de Bruyn told me this morning that they have purchased a new home in North Richland Hills -- that is North Richland Hills, TEXAS (!) -- a few miles from where we used to live. I don't know if they have a moving date yet. The biggest draw is the significantly lower cost of living.

+ Bob & Linda Johnson told me this morning that they've purchased an acre and a half in Kentucky. They're planning to build a new home there.

Would the last person out of California please turn off the lights!

+ Keith Hamilton, president of Alaska Christian College, preached for me this morning. He says that we can expect to read about them in the news in the coming week. Apparently some group is suing the federal government because of the grants that have been given to the school -- claiming that it is a violation of the separation of church and state rules.

+ It's hard to believe that Star Wars is a Sunday afternoon Fox movie. It was such a big deal when we saw it in the theatre. I suppose we just need to remember this as they feed us the Revenge of the Sith hype over the next few weeks. In time, it too, is destined for the Fox dumping ground -- where teenagers in 2020 will laugh at the hokey special affects.

+ Have I mentioned, yet, that manila mangos have finally arrived at all the best grocery stores (mostly Mexican stores in our area)? These are the smaller, sweeter, and less expensive of the mango fruit varieties. Even though they occasionally go by different marketing names you can tell the manilas because they are yellow and bean-shaped (other mangos tend to be green with reddish tints and are closer to pear-shaped). Let them ripen until just slightly soft before eating.

+ Cheryl heard another papal nickname to add to my list -- "the German Shepherd"

+ The Traditional Anglican Communion is a global association of orthodox Anglican churches with more than 400,000 members on six continents. Their pressing goal is to become a church body affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. With the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI they appear to be getting closer to achieving their objective.